Hi there - I have an annoying problem that I'm hoping I can get some input on. After years and years on cycles of antibiotics and hormonal birth control, I am now on a topical-only regimen for my skin. It's taken some patience but the results have been very good. In January, I got a few larger jawline pimples that all went away. However, two of them seem to kind of still be there. They are like two large, hard lumps under the skin. They have no visible head and don't feel like there's anything inside them. They are red right on top of them, but otherwise not very noticeable. I am just really weirded out because they've been there for weeks and weeks now. I don't have insurance so I have to pay out of pocket to see my dermatologist, so I thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas before I do that. Otherwise my regimen is great. Any ideas would be appreciated!!

What kind of topical are you on? How big are your cysts...end of pencil size, jelly bean size or dime size? Makes a difference on what to do. Pencil and jelly bean size respond to BP. Dime size requires a derm to treat.

Sounds like you may have real cysts. Many people here think they have cysts but they're really just large infected pustules that come to a head and drain in a week or so. True cysts are big under the skin lumps that can remain that way for weeks and months. Unfortunately these things can leave bad scars. You could try using BP on them to open the pore and kill the acne bacteria. Very few things will get deep inside the skin but BP is one of them. That's about your only OTC option. At the derm's office they often inject them to avoid deep scarring. These things create alot of scar tissue because there is infection deep within the skin creating a pocket that hardens and the skin depresses once the infection is finally cleared out by the body. Sadly the body takes a long time to do this.

When I've had really bad cysts I always paid the money to get them injected. Saved me from bad scarring. I have some scarring from large pustules but nothing too awful or noticable.

I would say that your topical is not getting deep eneough and you need expert advice. Spend the money and see a derm. You don't want to fool with these things.

I had EXACTLY THE SAME THING, as I've previously outlined in a few other threads. It was hormonal and it's literally just a lump that remains dormant for ages. Once my hormonal acne was rectified, they stopped coming but MAN they were annoying.

"Long hair makes a good looking man, beautiful and an ugly man fierce"

Thanks for the feedback! I think I will make a trip to the dermatologist to avoid scarring as you suggest. The bumps are smaller now and seem to be going away, but it's been months and this is just not normal for me.

The topical regimen I'm using, which has cleared practically everything 100%, is in the morning a Cerave face wash/Acanya (topical Clindamycin & BP)/SPF moisturizer and then at night a charcoal wash that I leave on for a few minutes followed by Tazorac and a nighttime moisturizer. After being on and off antibiotics and hormonal birth control for years, I am finally oral med free and controlling my skin. It took MONTHS for it to improve with the topical, but for the first time I feel like generally things look great with just the topical regimen. However if I skip even one treatment I can tell - things flare up. The only acne I'm still getting is once in a while jawline stuff related to those pesky lady hormones, which is what these bumps seem to be leftover from.

Thanks again for the information - just what I was hoping to find out!